Method for decreasing egg white whipping time



Aug. 11, 1953 w. E. LLOYD METHOD FOR DECREASING EGG WHITE WHIPPING TIME Filed Sept. 10. 1949 ,jgj

IN V EN TOR.

%a &m 5335516, 32 Cd/L/ Patented Aug. 11, 1953 NIETHOD FOR DECREASING EGG WHITE.- WHIPPINGTIME.

William E. Lloyd, Homewood; Illi, assignor t'o" Armour and Company, Chicago, 1112, a comm ration of-Illinois Application September 10, 1949;v Serial Nb. 114,947"

2 Claims;

'I'his; invention relates, to a method for decreasing egg, white Whipping time.

Egg whites are employed in almost. every recipe for bread, cake, meringue, and high-grade confectionery. The primary function of the egg Whiteistoincorporate air into the dough or other masswhenthe same. is whipped. In baked materiaIstheZheat. coagulated egg, protein serves not only to give shape to the dough, but also acts as a binder and prevents a crumbly texture.

Various suggestions have been made in the literature; for improving; the: whipping time, stabilityi and,v foam volume of liquid or dried egg Whites; However; thesuggested methods involve extremely expensiveapparatus or else have been inefiective as methods. for decreasing the whipping; time.

It:-.is:already;well establishedthat the time re,-

quired to whip-a1 meringue to within a definite; specificgravity bears a directrelation to the'cake volume; tensile strength and .palatability of acake baked according to a standard recipe. Ithas been. observedthat the longer the whippingztime', the; higher will be the tensile strength and the lower the palatability score. Further, commercial bakers and confectioners have long been demanding anegg; white product which can be more rapidlywhipped.

f'resheggs are received daily by egg break ing and{ separating plants throughout the country, it is-wel1 recognized that the viscosity ofthe-whitesvary from egg to egg. This difference'is-so noticeable thatthe termsthick whites and-thin whites are now used as a common form;- The'thinwhites, on the other hand; havefewen-lessjdistinct, mucin fibers. Itis-this difference-in'mucin content which accounts for certainother differencesin physical properties" asidc;fr0m th'e viscosity; Foremost among these is' the whippingtime; It'has been found thatthe thicki whites. require a much. longer whipping time thanithe thin whites. This is probably du'ei to the fact'that the'gross colloidal structure must 50' 2. first be broken up; and; in sodoing; the mucin fibers are altered. Apparently,= the greater'the number of fibers, the longer time it will taket'o suflicientlyalter them;

Thus far, attempts" to reducethe-viscosity'ofi eg whites have been -concerned=-chemicaf and physical treatments. The chemical treat' ment has, in-the'main involvedtreating-thewhitbs with acidsof' an edible-nature; This-lowers the" viscosity but does not result in-a-uniform product? having a decreased whipping time under" a variety of conditions; such as; agin'gjtemperature difierences in different baking shops; storage temperatures, etc.

The physical means employedhavebe'enc'om plicated and rather expensive machines; and" no one has been heretofore=successful inreducin'g': the whipping time of egg whites with extremely simple apparatus:

Anobject of" the present invention isto'pro' vide a methodof' extremely simple-'st'eps where=- by, the whipping'time of egg whitesca'n begre'atly reduced: without substantially increasin'gthe processing expense; A further object isto-provide a" method for reducing the whipping 'time of egg whiteswhile increasing gthe palat'a-lziility or the baked product in which I thewhipp'edw'hites are incorporated. A still-furtherobiiect isto pro=* vide" incombination with acentrifugal pump; an orifice of specific and critical dimensions which reduces the whippingtime" of egg whites- Other: specific obj sets and advantages will appearas the specification proceeds.

The new-'methodmaybecarried"out in various; types of apparatus andfor the purpose of"illus--* trating, one form of such apparatus I is set' out in the accompanying-drawing,- in which- Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic view: showing appara'- tus'in which the method may be 'practiced;: Fig=. 2 is abroken'detail sectional view 'of the orifice plate" secured in the pump'"outlet conduit; and Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the pumppart a which may be employed, the partsb'ein 'g as showm in separated relation;

In one embodiment of the process; a-quantity-' of mixed thick and thin eggwhitesare dropped-' into tank I and pass'by'gravity throughto pipe 2'; and to the intake of the propeller" blade equipped centrifugal pump 3'. In the specific illustration" given; thy-blade 3Z1?" is -fixed*= t6 the shaft of motor 4. Within the casing of the pump, the egg whites are engaged by the propeller blade and are passed upwardly through a port 4' into pipe 5. In pipe 5 is located an orifice plate 6, as shown more clearly in Fig. 2. The orifice plate is provided centrally with an orifice 1 through which the egg whites are passed before being discharged into pipe 8 which thus forms a continuation of pipe 5. Pipe 8 discharges into container 9 or into any other suitable receiver. If desired, a vessel l may be supported below a valve equipped discharge spout II.

The orifice plate 6 is in the form of a circular metal plate of substantial thickness and having an outside diameter approximating that of pipe 5. A coupler nut 12 is provided on one side with a flange [3 which engages a collar M with which the end of pipe is provided and the other end of the coupler nut is provided with threads [5 which engage a threaded collar l6 carried by pipe 8. As already indicated, there is bored through the middle of the plate 6, ahole I, of the desired diameter.

which enables the operator to determine the shear effect on egg whites passing through the pipe.

The centrifugal pump may be of any suitable construction. I prefer to employ a propeller blade 3a which is adapted to be mounted directly upon the drive shaft of motor 4 and which is equipped with edges adapted to be brought into contact with the egg Whites to exert a shearing effect thereon. 'I pre fer a pump in which the edges of the propeller blade when inside the casing are close to the interior walls of a circular pump housing I1.

The propeller exerts a hashing action on the egg whites that come in contact with it and is partially effective in the disintegration of the gross colloidal structure of the whites. However, without the cooperation of the restraining orifice in the pipe line, the pump is in itself inefiective in reducing the whipping time of the egg whites.

I have discovered that there is a critical orifice size which in cooperation with the centrifugal L pump decreases the whipping time of egg whites. Extremely small orifices such as are employed in homogenizers are ineffective in decreasing the whipping time and often increase the whipping time. Further, when the orifice size is in the neighborhood of of an inch, th whipping time is not decreased. Between these limits, and preferably in the range of a; of an inch to 1 s of an inch, I find that there is a substantial decrease in the whipping time of egg whites. Best results were secured when the orifice was a inch orifice. By using such an orifice, the whipping time was decreased from nine minutes to four minutes. I prefer not to employ an orifice below of an inch because this takes the process outside the limits of a practical range for continuous egg treatment under conditions which have been described. A f le inch orifice gave a whipping time of 5 minutes and a {a orifice gave a whipping time of 7 minutes. A inch orifice gave a whipping time of minutes which was the same time required for the untreated sample (control). A inch orifice gave a whipping time of 4 minutes but the volume was considerably smaller than that processed through the g inch orifice and there was no saving in whipping time.

In the process I believe that the new results are achieved through the joint effect of the centrifugal pumping blade which hashes the egg Whites and the orifice plate which exerts a back If desired, there may be inserted in the pipe 5, a constricted lass tube or sight glass,

4 pressure upon the material in the pump chamber. A typical centrifugal pump has been shown in the drawing but it will be understood that other propeller pumps equipped with a rotating blade may be used for accomplishing the purposes described.

Why the selected orifice is effective in reducing the Whipping time of egg whites while much smaller orifices are ineifective for this purpose and larger orifices in excess of inch are also ineffective, I am not able to state. It seems clear, however, from the tests which I have made employing orifices of different dimensions that there is a critical range of orifice dimensions which for some reason or other greatly reduce the whipping time of liquid egg whites.

Specific examples of my process may be set out as follows:

Example 1 V A batch of fresh egg whites Was tested first to determine the whipping time thereof in order to arrive at a proper consistency for angel food cake baking. The tests showed that 9 minutes were required to bring the eggs to such consistency. A portion of the eggs was then passed through a 3' inch orifice in accordance with-the process described above and the product was then whipped and employed in the baking of an angel food cake. The whipping time to reach the above desired consistency was cut down to three minutes. Further, the palatability of the angel food cake was higher than the cake baked with the untreated eggs after they had been whipped for 9 minutes.

Example 2 Mixed egg whites which have been frozen were tested to determine the proper consistency for angel food cake baking and the whipping time was found to be 10 minutes. A test cake was made with the control sample. When a portion of the same batch was passed through a 1 6 inch orifice by means of a centrifugal pump in accordance with the description above set out, the whipping time of the eggs thus treated was .foundto be four minutes. the treated eggs was found to have greater palatability than the cake baked with the control sample.

Example 3 Mixed fresh egg whites were checked for whipping time and it was found that l0 minutes were required for bringing the eggs to the desired consistency for an angel food cake.

inch orifice in the type of apparatus already described and the whipping time of the product was found to be 5 /2 minutes. A highlypalatable angel food cake was prepared from the egg product.

The process is one which utilizes the equipment already existing in most plants and actually requires only a slight alteration in the pipe line for the insertion of an inexpensive orifice plate.

Insertion of such a plate for an orifice of the di-" mensions already described results in a product in which the whipping time may be reduced from 9 or 10 minutes to 3 or 4 minutes at substantially no increase in cost.

While in the foregoing specification I have set out certain steps of the process in considerable detail for the purpose of embodiment of the invention, it will be understood that such details may be varied-widely by those skilled in the The angel food cake baked with A portion of the untreated eggs was then passed through a 5 art without departing from the spirit of my invention.

I claim:

1. In a process for treating raw egg whites, the step of hashing the egg white material within a chamber filled with said material while simultaneously forcing said material from said chamber through an orifice having a diameter of from r g to inch to create a back pressure on the material in said chamber sufficient to make said hashing effective in decreasing the required length of time to whip said egg whites.

2. In a process for treating raw egg whites, the step of hashing the egg white material within a chamber filled with said material while simultaneously forcing said material from said compartment through an orifice having a diameter of & inch to create a back pressure on the material in said chamber sufficient to make said 5 hashing effective in decreasing the required length of time to whip said egg whites.

WILLIAM E. LLOYD.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,139,696 Reynolds Dec. 13, 1938 2,151,760 Harris Mar. 28, 1939 

1. IN A PROCESS FOR TREATING RAW EGG WHITES, THE STEP OF HASHING THE EGG WHITE MATERIAL WITHIN A CHAMBER FILLED WITH SAID MATERIAL WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY FORCING SAID MATERIAL FROM SAID CHAMBER THROUGH AN ORIFICE HAVING A DIAMETER OF FROM 1/16 TO 7/16 INCH TO CREATE A BACK PRESSURE ON THE MATERIAL IN SAID CHAMBER SUFFICIENT TO MAKE SAID HASHING EFFECTIVE IN DECREASING THE REQUIRED LENGTH OF TIME TO WHIP SAID EGG WHITES. 